Get your bad credit back on track

It took me five years of hard work and living in less than
perfect accommodations but I finally got $30,000 worth of debt worked off.I was young, what can I say.There's so many ways to make excuses
for your past experiences but it's when you realize that your decisions are a
part of you that you can't get rid of that you can finally turn the ship
around.It wasn't too late before
I realized this but it very well could have been.My frivolous spending caught up with me and my awful credit
prevented me from buying anything else or getting any more credit. My life as I
knew it then had ended.

I have to admit that I did freak out a little bit.I thought that the world was out to get
me and everybody just wanted to see me fail.I swore the giant lending corporations were just planning to
get me in a whole bunch of debt so that I could eternally be paying them
back.Although I was sort of
right, they really didn't want me to declare bankruptcy, they wanted me to work
my way out of this grave I had dug for myself. And that was a very painful
realization too.That it was me
that did this to myself, no one else.

So anyways, here I am, broke as a joke and unable to pay
next month's rent, not even on credit.I figure it's time to get a real job where I sit in a cubicle all day
and punch numbers in my suit and tie.First, I needed a suit but I couldn't get anybody to sell me one.I had no money in my overdraft, no credit
left on my credit cards, and I was scared to death to ask any family or friends
for money.I needed some sound financial advice. It was an instantaneous
decision to change my life. It felt like getting off crack or quitting
drinking(I can only assume) and a
huge weight felt like it was lifted off my shoulders.I hadn't even done anything yet, just made the decision to
change.

I wasn't really sure what to do but I knew that a credit
card was the wrong decision.My
first stop was the department store.I picked out a perfect two-button light grey suit with pinstripes, asked
about tailoring and picked out a couple shirts and ties.When I was done, I added it all up,
added taxes on and then went to find a loan.I went to my oldest bank account holder. I walked into the small credit
union that had managed my money, or lack thereof, since I was five years
old.I knocked on the lending
manager's door and plead my case. I showed him my suit calculations and told
him about my upcoming interviews (I had three at this point).He made me shake his hand and say that
this would be the first loan I repaid and then proceeded to extend my overdraft
account by a couple bucks more than the suit would cost.

Ecstatic, and unable to believe that my plan worked, I
skipped down the street, bought the suit and got measured for tailoring. A
couple days later, I picked it up and kept practicing for my interviews.

When my interviews finally came 'round, I was so optimistic
that I couldn't believe I was me.The interviewers definitely noticed my demeanor too.I nailed my first interview and thought
for sure that I had got it. I didn't. The interviewers did really like me but
they had to hire someone with the same credentials who was an internal
candidate.One of the interviewers
in particular called me and told me that he had suggested a friend of his give
me a call in regards to a job. I thanked the man and awaited the call.

The other two interviews happened on the same day and they
both went swimmingly as well.I
was brimming with confidence and everybody could see it.As I was walking out of the third
interview, my cell phone rang.The
first interviewer's friend wanted me to come by and finish up the day there. I
had a job without even being interviewed. He said he trusted his friend enough
to give me a shot.Anyways, to
make a long story short, I kept the job, moved into a smaller and much cheaper,
but more appropriate bachelor apartment, sold my car and walked to work, and
began paying off my debt, which was more than my rent each month.

Now, I have gotten out of debt, completely, aside from my mortgage,
which my good old credit union set up for me.I paid back that lending manager before I paid anything else
as a gesture of thanks and bought him a bottle of scotch.I find it a bit ironic that it was a loan of all things that got me rid of my bad credit but I don't care. Literary devices don't mean anything in real life. It was, however, because of that loan, bad credit is a thing of the past for me. I can't believe that that's who I used
to be but I learned so much from a carefree spending life that I will never go
back to it.